Hitherto, a recording medium which is used in an audio apparatus generally has a capacity for recording audio data of about 80 minutes. However, in association with the realization of a large capacity of the recent recording media, audio data of time that is much longer than before can be stored into the recording medium. Since the recording media of a large capacity have also become less expensive, the user can reasonably obtain the recording media of a large capacity. Among the large capacity recording media, a hard disk drive (hereinafter, referred to as HDD) as a representative of them is a media which is drawing the largest attention in recent years in view of a size of capacity and price.
In the HDD, since a much larger number of music pieces than those of the conventional recording media can be stored and held, functions of the audio apparatus itself have also been changed largely from the conventional ones. For example, a play list function can be mentioned as a new function. The play list function is a function such that by selecting only desired music pieces from a music file (track) recorded on a hard disk and registering them into a file called a play list, a virtual album in which only the desired music pieces of the user are collected can be formed. That is, it is a function such that a program reproducing function equipped for a conventional CD reproducing apparatus is expanded.
However, the conventional play list function has a problem such that if the track registered in the play list is divided, combined, or erased, the music pieces registered in the play list cannot be reproduced. This problem is caused because when the track as a substance is edited, information of the track registered in the play list is not updated.
According to the conventional play list function, there is also a problem such that a possibility that an editing operation such as division, combination, erasure, or the like is erroneously executed to the track registered in the play list is high.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an editing apparatus and an editing method, in which when a track as a substance is edited, track information corresponding to the track can be erased from a play list.
Another object of the invention is to provide an editing apparatus and an editing method, in which it is possible to prevent a track registered in a play list from being erroneously edited.